It has a taken a while but I think I’m finally happy with the way I’m processing my photos. Prior to this I was still experiementing with color balance and color saturation to say something about my subjects. Functionally though I want to capture exactly what I’m seeing when I take the picture.

I’m the sort of person that gets mired in the technical details of something. I like to know how each small detail affects everything around it. With the huge amount of options available for processing raw files it took me almost a year to start producing something I can say I really really like. That’s just the colors though.

I think I’m finally where I want to be with regards to processing. I can still find a special photo and make further adjustments so it stands out as a background for my PC, but as photos that we print and hang on our walls I can finally say these are where I like them.

Tags: kids,photography
Categories: Phoebe, Photo Highlights, Sophia
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This post is over due, like many others, but better late than never! This last weekend we went to the Dallas Zoo. The weather was perfect for it! The last time we went Phoebe was still a bit too young to really appreciate the animals and the zoo environment, and spent most of the time in the stroller. This time she really got to wander around and enjoyed the animals. Here are some highlights of the zoo:

The meerkats came right up to us and stared back at us. They were so close, what a treat!

Playing with all the big statues they had.

We went to the petting area and Phoebe wandered away from us over to the pigs. She got more than she bargained for when she walked up to a very large pink pig who was being kept behind not much of a cage. She was very intimidated and freaked out, to say the least, and came running back over to me moaning.

She was also scared by the monkeys. One area of their habitat was behind a large glass wall so you could walk right up to it and be very close to them. Phoebe did just that, but when there were NO monkeys near it. One came walking up right next to the glass, and therefore her, and she once again, very intimidated and freaked out came running over to me for safety.

Sophia really impressed me with her memory. It was MONTHS ago that we were last at the zoo, but as soon as we were in the children’s area she asked to go pet the animals and ride the pony. The pony rides weren’t going on at the time but she really liked petting the gueina pig and rabbit. Phoebe wouldn’t DARE touch them, but she sure liked standing on the stool and looking at them.

Granny gave each of the girls $3 to spend on what they wanted at the Zoo. Sophia was all excited about her special money and we kept it safe on the fridge until the day of the Zoo. Every time she saw it she would say it was her money for the Zoo. They both chose the same kind of toy from the gift shop: a hand held plastic puppet of sorts. Sophia got a tiger and Phoebe, the giraffe. For the most part there has been fighting and hitting with these toys. *Sigh*

We love the Zoo and can’t wait to return!

Categories: Phoebe, Photo Highlights, Sophia, Weekly Family Update
4 Comments »

Sophia has discovered Daddy’s glasses. She loves them.

Sophia has also posed very well for pictures.

She’s so used to her picture being taken that she EXPECTS it.

Phoebe plays with daddy’s mouth while Sophia brushes his hair.

She likes to get dizzy and swish her hair about.

Categories: Heather, Photo Highlights
1 Comment »

Heather is working on a longer post about the various activities and fun things we did over our Thanksgiving vacation. We have plenty of pictures of all the fun moments we had. After reading some of her draft, I realize that we have pictures to illustrate pretty much every fun moment we spent with family.

There won’t be enough room in her post to show all of these pictures so I’ll try and share some highlights.

Tags: bj,Heather,Phoebe,Sophia
Categories: BJ, Photo Highlights
1 Comment »

We got together as a family and were able to get some outdoor portraits done. I brought my camera, lights, tripod, etc etc and got a few good shots of the family there.

Just fyi, I wasn’t the primary picture taker. Unknown to me There were at least 4 Nikon DSLRs there. These were all informal and taken quickly. Setup was two sb-28s on radio triggers bounced in to umbrellas to camera left

Tags: family portraits,lighting
Categories: BJ, Photo Highlights
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Thanks for letting us shoot your wedding.

All your photos are up.

I’ll have them on smugmug shortly. Here’s the link to the album. Just click on the thumbnail below.

Tags: blake,cindy,wedding
Categories: BJ, Photo Highlights
2 Comments »

I have some of the highlights up in the gallery now. I’m doing the last batch of fine tuning on the rest and will have them up within the week.

Tags: photo highlight
Categories: BJ, Photo Highlights
2 Comments »

Sorry I didn’t make this post earlier, but I’ve been increasingly lazy/busy. Heather has an update coming and it will be a large one. We keep notes of the what the girls are doing so don’t worry you won’t miss anything. You will however be greeted with a wall of text since we have a wedding shoot to do this weekend. Expect updates sometime next week.

I have all my equipment now, and purchased a bat bag to carry it all. I’ll post some shots with the different lenses when I get a chance. I’ll probably take a ton of extraneous photos since I can only keep the rental equipment until the 8th. I’ll find an excuse to use the 3 extra lenses.

Here are some photo picks from the last few weeks. Oh and in case you haven’t noticed there is a new link to the left. Click on it and you’ll be taken to an album of our latest 120 photos.

Tags: photo highlight
Categories: BJ, Photo Highlights
3 Comments »